Old vs new WH-347: what changed

If you have been doing certified payroll for years, your muscle memory is built on the WH-347 labeled "Revised December 2008." The current form is labeled "Rev. January 2025." It is a substantially different layout: more columns, separate fringe benefit fields, and a new page 2.

The dates, from the official records

	Previous form	Current form
Label on the form	Revised December 2008	Rev. January 2025
OMB number	1235-0008	1235-0008
Expiration printed on the form	09/30/2026	01/31/2028

On reginfo.gov, the government's record of OMB paperwork approvals, the information collection "Davis-Bacon Certified Payroll" (OMB 1235-0008) shows ICR 202410-1235-006 concluded on 01/06/2025 as "Approved with change," with an expiration date of 01/31/2028. The same record lists the previously approved expiration as 09/30/2026, which is the date printed on the 2008 form.

What an expired OMB number means

Both versions carry the Paperwork Reduction Act notice: "Persons are not required to respond to the collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number." After 09/30/2026, the old form no longer displays a currently valid expiration date. The current, approved version of the collection is the January 2025 form.

Two things are worth keeping straight:

• The form is still optional. 29 CFR 5.5(a)(3)(ii)(B) says the weekly information "may be submitted using Optional Form WH-347 or in any other format desired."
• The content requirements come from the regulation, not the form. The contract clauses in 29 CFR 5.5(a)(3), as revised by DOL's 2023 Davis-Bacon rule, set what a certified payroll must contain and what the Statement of Compliance must certify. The 2025 form was redesigned around those requirements.

We did not find a DOL announcement that sets a separate "ban" date for the old form, and some vendors describe the September 30, 2026 date more strictly than the official records do. The practical advice is the same either way: use the Rev. January 2025 form, and if an agency or prime contractor has given you a different instruction for a project, follow it and keep it in writing.

Page 1: what changed

Topic	Revised December 2008	Rev. January 2025
Final payroll	No check box	"Submission of final DBRA certified payroll form" check box
Contractor or sub	Check boxes next to "Name of contractor / or subcontractor"	"Prime contractor" / "Subcontractor" check boxes
Wage determination	No field	"Wage determination no." field in the header
Payroll number	"Payroll no."	"Certified payroll no."
Worker identity	One column: name and individual identifying number	1A entry no., 1B last name, 1C first name, 1D middle initial, 1E identifying no.
Withholding exemptions	Column (2), "No. of withholding exemptions"	Removed
Apprentice status	No column	Column 2: "J" journeyworker or "RA" registered apprentice (with level)
Hours by day	Overtime line ("O") above straight time ("S")	Straight time ("ST") above overtime ("OT"), with day letters and dates rows
Rate	One "Rate of pay" column	6A hourly wage rate for ST and OT, excluding cash in lieu of fringe
Fringe benefits	No column on page 1 (covered by the statement on the back)	6B total fringe benefit credit; 6C payment in lieu of fringe benefits
Gross	One split cell for gross earned	7A gross for this project; 7B gross for all work
Deductions	FICA, withholding tax, other, total	Tax withholdings, FICA, other (must specify), total, all labeled "for all work"
Net	"Net wages paid for week"	"Net pay to worker for all work"

The ST/OT swap is the change most likely to cause errors for experienced users: on the old form the overtime line was on top.

Page 2: a new Statement of Compliance

The old back page was a fill-in-the-blanks statement ("I, ___, ___, do hereby state: (1) That I pay or supervise the payment of the persons employed by ___ on the ___"), followed by numbered statements and section (4) with three parts: (a) fringe benefits paid to approved plans, funds or programs, (b) fringe benefits paid in cash, and (c) exceptions, by craft, with an explanation. It ended with remarks, name and title, and signature.

The new page 2:

• Repeats the project header and adds the certifying official's name and title.
• Replaces the paragraph with six check boxes; boxes 1, 2, 3 and 6 must always be checked. See Statement of Compliance explained.
• Adds an apprenticeship program table (program name, OA or SAA, classification).
• Adds an Hourly Credit for Fringe Benefits table: up to six plans with name, type, plan number, funded or unfunded, and the hourly credit for each worker. See WH-347 fringe benefits explained.
• Adds date, telephone number and email address next to the signature.
• Keeps the falsification warning (18 U.S.C. 1001 and 31 U.S.C. 3729) and adds debarment and the FOIA disclosure note.

What this means for your weekly routine

• More data per worker. Split names, an identifying number (never the full SSN), J or RA, and the wage determination number on every report.
• Fringe is now explicit. You report plan credit and cash in lieu separately, per worker, and document plans on page 2.
• Deductions and net are "for all work." If a worker also worked on another job that week, 7B, column 8 and column 9 cover the whole week, not just this project.
• Templates need rebuilding. A spreadsheet laid out like the 2008 form will not map onto the 2025 form cell for cell.

For the full column-by-column instructions, see how to fill out WH-347. WH-347 Kit prints only the Rev. January 2025 form.